Ratchet type socket wrenches are a great advantage to mechanics under certain condition. The ratchet mechanism allows the socket to be progressively rotated in a single rotation direction while the drive portion of the ratchet wrench is rotated back and forth along a limited angular pathway. These ratchet type wrenches operate fine when the fastener being tightened has sufficient frictional resistance to prevent the socket secured to the drive post of the ratchet wrench from rotating back with the ratchet drive each time the drive portion of the ratchet wrench is rocked back by the user. When the socket moves back and forth with the drive portion, the fastener cannot be tightened with the wrench alone and the socket is usually grasped by the user until sufficient resistance is supplied by the fastener to allow the ratchet mechanism to operate without assistance. Although use of the fingers is often possible, it is not always possible for the user to physically position his/her hands close enough to grasp the socket. It would be a benefit, therefore, to have a brake device that could be used in conjunction with a socket type ratchet wrench that would supply sufficient resistance to the ratchet mechanism to allow the ratchet mechanism to operate properly. In addition, because various sized sockets are utilized with the same ratchet drive, it would be a further benefit if the same brake device could be utilized regardless of the socket utilized with the ratchet drive.
In some situations it is desirable to either hand tighten a fastener and then use the socket wrench to apply a tightening force to the fastener or to use the socket wrench to loosen a tightened fastener to the point that hand loosening is possible and then to finish removing the fastener by hand. Although this may be desirable, the location of the fastener may make such hand tightening and loosening difficult. It would be a benefit, therefore, if a brake device as previously discussed could be utilized as a starting tool to supply a rotational force to the socket in the desired direction. Because of the confined conditions in which such tightening must take place it would also be a benefit if a user could supply a reciprocating motion that was converted by the brake device to a rotational force for rotating the socket in the desired direction.